This city unfurls a huge banner in support of Paul Watson

At the end of July, while sailing off the coast of Greenland to intercept a Japanese whaling factory ship, Paul Watson was once again the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, initially issued in 2012. A few hours later, the founder of Sea Shepered is arrested, then imprisoned on the Danish autonomous territory, awaiting a decision from the Ministry of Justice which must rule on Japan's extradition request.

Paul Watson has now been detained for more than 100 days. Japanese authorities are now seeking a 15-year prison sentence for injuries allegedly inflicted on a Japanese sailor in 2010 and for the boarding of the whaler Shonan Maru 2.

An obvious decision for the town hall of Luc-sur-Mer

While this affair has been the subject of massive mobilization in France and abroad since this summer, the town of Luc-sur-Mer (Calvados), symbolized by a whale, has decided to deploy a huge banner on the facade of its town hall, to show its support for Paul Watson.

Questioned by our colleagues from France Bleu, the mayor of the town, Philippe Chanu, however, insists on his intention to defend the cause, before the man. The banner was placed on October 30, the hundredth day of imprisonment of the environmental activist. Finally, to further highlight the symbolism, it sits on the facade of the town hall, near the skeleton of a whale, which was stranded on a city beach in 1885.